[...] Beth Steff has been practising at the monasteries associated with the traditions of Ajahn Chah in the West now for many years. She spent six years with us at Abhayagiri Buddhist Monastery in California, USA. After returning to her home country of New Zealand, Beth was feeling inspired by the examples of living a life of mindfulness that she experienced in the monasteries and wanted to share that with others.

She then started compiling talks by some of the different teachers in the western branches of the Ajahn Chah monasteries. The result is this book, which hopes to convey the techniques and benefits of different perspectives of applying Buddhist practice in our day-to-day life. Hopefully, it will expand the reader’s focus to further understand and integrate the way of practice that the Buddha laid down and give people the opportunity to appreciate how this path of integrity, clarity and discernment works to free the human heart from its entanglements.

On the occasion of my 60th birthday, I received some requests from the monastic Sangha and the lay supporters of Buddha Bodhivana Monastery who wished to know more about my life and practice as a monk. In response, it seems like a good idea to commit some of my various recollections to paper before they become lost through the passage of time. This book includes some of my personal recollections and insights from my life in the robes, rather than providing lengthy explanations of the Buddha’s teachings. The language used is simple and without too much reference to many of the Pali technical terms that we use daily as we talk about the Buddha’s teachings.

Este livro contém uma miscelânea de meus escritos, em vez de palestras transcritas, abrangendo minha vida como um ajahn na sangha ocidental da Tradição da Floresta da Tailândia. A primeira parte, “Raízes”, é principalmente histórica; seus capítulos apresentam Ajahn Chah, nosso fundador e nossa inspiração, e Ajahn Sumedho, que nos levou ao Reino Unido e além, e em seguida descreve vários eventos de nossa história no Ocidente. A segunda parte, “Correntes”, contém tanto ensinamentos quanto reminiscências pessoais, relatos de algumas de minhas viagens recentes. Evidentemente, em ambas as partes do livro, os ensinamentos se mesclam à história, e a história aos ensinamentos.

Muitos dos capítulos foram originalmente escritos até vinte anos atrás e, portanto, estão inevitavelmente desatualizados. Fiz algumas adaptações com o intuito de torná-los atemporais ou mais atuais, mas por vezes me pareceu melhor deixá-los em seu estado mais ou menos original. Qualquer relato histórico de um movimento como a nossa sangha está sujeito a se tornar desatualizado antes mesmo de ser publicado. Assim, listas de mosteiros e números de monásticos podem não ser mais relevantes; o que realmente importa é que nossa sangha continua a crescer e a florescer para o benefício de humanos e de todos os seres.

This little collection was never intended as a ‘collection of teachings.’ It came about in response to a request and a suggestion. The request was from Sarah Wallis who wanted to sponsor a publication in celebration of her sixtieth birthday, and to mark thirty years of the Banbury Buddhist Group. The suggestion, also from Sarah, was to gather together the reflections that had been individually prepared for the twice-yearly editions of our Milntuim Hermitage Newsletter.

It was a surprise to find that there are twenty of these – and even more of a surprise to find that the reflections are all quite different. Every time I wrote a reflection, my intention was to offer encouragement for practice with the prevailing conditions; it seemed to me that it was always the same Dhamma1 practice that I pointed to. However, what I had failed to appreciate was that the actual conditions were different each time!

So, after an initial hesitation, I asked some of my monastic and lay friends to read what was there. Ajahn Sucitto, Ajahn Munindo and Ajahn Sundarā all offered encouraging and helpful feedback, as did several kind lay friends. Members of the Lotus Volunteer Group gathered the material in one place, and Mariah O’Neill gave it a thorough edit. Eleonora Monti has helped to prepare the text for publication. Nicholas Halliday offered his expertise in preparing the practical and artistic elements, patiently to-ing and fro-ing with proof-readers until it was ‘just about right’ enough.

May it serve as an encouragement to attune to the Dhamma, the Timeless, as we navigate the uncharted waters of the times to come.

Ajahn Candasirī (from the Foreword)

"I thought I would begin by offering a few reflections about equanimity or upekkhā. This is one of the most significant psychological, emotional qualities talked about in the Buddhist tradition. However, because we commonly translate the word upekkhā in English as ‘equanimity’, it can easily be overlooked or seen as something a bit insignificant, not so practical or even heartwarming, as the word ‘equanimity’ in English can easily mean ‘indifference’, not really caring – it can be taken to be a switched-off, disconnected and somewhat numb attitude towards things."

Based on a talk given at Amaravati – 26-4-2020

"While I was studying at Budapest in 2005, I remember looking for books which could help me get a useful perspective on my confused experiences. There was no lack of explanation and advice, but they were missing a concrete direction: ‘Interesting ideas, but what do I do and how?’ I believe that good instruction should enable one to do more than before, shed light on the ‘what’ and ‘how’, and even on the ‘why’. The first book which gave me a tangible foothold was Ajahn Sumedho’s short book, The Four Noble Truths. It provided an introduction to a practical method of investigation with examples of Ajahn Sumedho’s own struggles. Later, when I was staying at Amaravati Buddhist Monastery in England, I read his other book Mindfulness: the Path to the Deathless and found it illuminating as well. I mention these books here because certain topics are covered in more detail there, and if you are reading this book, they might also be helpful. Here, I collect advice and teachings that I wish I had read, or someone had told me sooner, during the years since those early books. The right answer remains obscured until we learn how to ask the right question." (excerpt from the introduction)

While researching the Pali Canon for my previous book, Working with the Five Hindrances, I occasionally came across an intriguingly cryptic phrase: ‘I-making, mine-making and the underlying disposition to conceit’ (ahaṅkāra-mamaṅkāra-mānānusaya). This phrase was intriguing because it suggests a completely new perspective to the universal inquiry into self and selflessness, and provides a glimpse into the unique realization which the Buddha was awakened. He designated this realization with the Pali term ‘anattā’, which is usually translated as ‘non-self’, ‘not-self’ or ‘no-self’. While the translation is literally correct, it unfortunately fails to convey the correct meaning of what the Buddha is saying. The Buddha did not deny self. What he denied was that self has any permanent, imperishable essence. The Buddha realized that self is essentially a constantly changing process, artificially created through the interaction of craving and ignorance. And, since it is ‘made-up’ by activities which we have some influence over, craving and ignorance can also be ‘unmade’ so that the deleterious effects of grasping self as permanent can come to cessation.